The Obama Doctrine

It’s just like launching a multi-stage rocket into orbit. The latest stage that has ignited is the final one, the one projecting Obama as an international figure, the commander-in-chief of the world’s most powerful military and the planet’s political leader. First he submitted a Sunday op-ed entitled “My Plan for Iraq” in the prestigious newspaper, the New York Times, where all the intellectuals write in order to shape the world with their ideas. Later, he gave a serious news conference in Washington about the U.S.’s new international strategy. Soon he will depart for the Middle East, with stops in Amman, Ramallah, and Jerusalem; to Europe with rallies and interviews in Berlin, Paris, and London; and finally (or in the middle) to Iraq and Afghanistan, where he will talk with military commanders and US diplomats about the conditions on the ground.

Foreign policy will play a very special role when Americans vote on November 4th. This wouldn’t be the case if we were only interested in the awful state in which the US economy finds itself, or if we only took into account Americans’ opinion poll preferences, which place the economy first, gas and energy prices second, and only in third place the war in Iraq. But both the reaction to the mortgage crisis and the causes of the double crises of liquidity and increasing prices have allowed the idea to take root that we are facing a political problem, or better put, a lack of sound policies and a conductor for the runaway train that has affected the entire globe. This Tuesday, following the intervention into the two giant mortgage houses Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Bush reacted with the same indifference he has shown to the crisis in our latitudes– “I understand that people are nervous, but the economy is growing, productivity is high, trade is working, and people are working. It’s not as good as we would like, but to the extent that we find weaknesses, we’ll react.” Neither was he in the picture of the last set piece produced to reflect the current international order, in Paris on June 13th and 14th– Sarkozy was the one soaking up the cameras, at Bush’s expense.

These days, Barack Obama has decided to confront both of the pressing issues that the candidates are facing. The most worrying is that the world locomotive is speeding down the tracks without a driver, in the middle of such acute dangers like the economic emergency, Iranian nuclear proliferation, the worsening of hostilities in Afghanistan, and the crisis in Darfur. The second issue is that the U.S.’s global image, which determines who will end up behind the wheel, now finds itself at rock bottom. Even in an obvious economic crisis, the U.S.’s foreign policy has become the central issue of its own domestic politics. Obama knows this and knows that it’s the place where he should construct his image to counter that of John McCain’s, the war hero and experienced and well-traveled senator. In a poll published yesterday by the Washington Post, 72% of those asked said that McCain was well prepared to manage international affairs, a number that falls to 56% with Obama. Only one of three respondents believes that Obama has a better knowledge of the world than McCain. With respect to the public’s confidence in running the war in Iraq, it’s a toss-up: 47% for McCain, 45% for Obama. But Obama comes out on top, by a two to one margin, regarding his ability to restore the US’ global image. If we keep in mind that Obama also beats McCain in the public’s confidence that he will lead the country out of a recession, one will understand the many reasons why Obama has now launched the international phase of his campaign.

Obama wants to get out of Iraq, with care and caution, in order to commit fully to extinguishing the real center of terrorism: in Afghanistan, on its border with Pakistan, and inside Pakistan itself. His primary inspiration is taken from the diplomatic, military, and political luminaries that forged the Truman Doctrine of nuclear containment with the Soviet Union. But the common thread within his outlined doctrine is a rupture with everything relating to Bush’s foreign policy. It has five objectives: end the war in Iraq, get rid of Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan, keep nuclear arms safe from terrorists and failed states, guarantee the energy supply, and rebuild the ruined alliances caused by the irresponsible steps of Bush and the Neocons. It is a tough and energetic message, and it has nothing to do with the image of a weak and pacifist leader that his Republican enemies are attempting to establish and sell.